and that 47% comment he made over the last couple of weeks. abc news spoke to the romney campaign and they were also surprised. they had pressed mitt romney to answer these questions. and they don't know why the president didn't bring it up, either. i feel these are talking points that the campaign is going to go over. and the next presidential debate is in two weeks. that will be taking place in new york. and you may hear about it then in that debate. >> brandi hitt live for us in denver. thank you, brandi. >>> and we talked to our washington editor, rick klein for insight into this first debate. >> our debate coverage continues now with abc's senior washington editor, rick klein. >> rick, pundits on both sides of the aisle, giving this to romney. we were expecting zingers, style, not substance. did it work? >> this was mitt romney's night. he was sharp. he was specific. he had a plan of attack. and he went after barack obama every way he could, and holding him accountable for the obama record. we haven't seen that too much in this campaign.